Cardiovascular disease, diseases affecting the heart and the vasculature, and vascular disease, diseases affecting the circulatory system, are prevalent conditions affecting millions of individuals across the globe. While vasculature disease may manifest in the hardening of arterial walls at a specific location, such disease state affects every organ in the human body. Several options exist to alleviate or minimize the risk associated with prolonged vasculature disease states. Depending on the severity, changes in life style, i.e. diet and increased exercise, or the use of drugs may be helpful. Where these options will not work or where the disease is severe, surgical intervention remains the primary treatment tool. Traditional surgical procedures have been steadily replaced with more minimally invasive endovascular techniques, and minimally invasive advances in endovascular technology are altering the way surgeons treat vascular diseases.
While vascular surgical procedures are safer than ever, complex vascular surgical procedures can result in collateral damage to the patient. While no surgery is without risk, the level of skill of the surgeon and his/her team, as well as the ability to minimize unforeseen surprises when performing the surgical procedure is paramount to preventing complications and/or death to the patient. Experienced surgeons having performed numerous vascular disease procedures are much more likely to complete such surgical procedures with fewer complications than those surgeons having less experience. While such experience is gained by training and performing numerous procedures, the number of surgical procedures available is a limiting factor. Accordingly, not every surgeon will have the same opportunity to perform the number of surgical procedures needed to obtain a skill level that minimizes the risks of the procedures undertaken. Moreover, as new procedures are developed, senior surgeons may find it difficult to obtain the necessary experience needed.
Training devices for practicing various surgical procedures have been used by surgeons to improve skills and are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,016,598, U.S. Pat. No. 7,976,313, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,976,312 describe patient simulator systems for teaching patient care. U.S. Pat. No. 7,798,815 discloses an electromechanical pumping system for simulating the beating of a heart in a cardiac surgery training environment. U.S. Pat. No. 7,866,983 discloses a surgical simulator for teaching, practicing, and evaluating surgical techniques. The simulator is described as comprising a cassette of organs, blood vessels, and tissues that may be disposable.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,083,418 discloses a model for teaching or illustrating surgical and/or medical technique. The system is described as having a base component representing tissue or an organ, and several components structured and arranged to be coupleable to and detachable from the base component and/or to each other, to illustrate different positions of the components with respect to one another, representing different phases in surgical and/or medical techniques.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,063,942 discloses a system for hemodynamic simulation. The system is described as comprising a vessel having properties of a blood vessel, a reservoir containing a quantity of fluid, tubing connecting the vessel and reservoir, and at least one pump for circulating the fluid within the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,843,145 discloses a cardiac phantom for simulating a dynamic cardiac ventricle. The phantom is described as comprising two concentrically disposed, fluid-tight, flexible membranes defining a closed space between the walls of the membranes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,685,481 discloses a training device for cardiac surgery and other similar procedures. The device is described as including an organ model such as a cardiac model, an animation network adapted to impart to the model a motion similar to the corresponding natural organ, and a control device used to control the operation of the animation network. The cardiac model is described as being made of two sections, an inner cast simulating the myocardium and an external shell simulating the pericardium.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,934 discloses an apparatus to serve as a phantom for evaluation of prosthetic valves and cardiac ultrasound procedures, wherein a controlled pulsatile flow of a blood-mimicking fluid is passed through a multi-chambered region into which are mounted mitral and aortic valves and adjustably positionable ultrasound transducers.
While such training devices are known in the art, the device and system for simulating normal and disease state cardiovasculature functioning in accordance with the present invention provides a training tool that is not only more anatomically correct than prior art devices, but also provides physiologically correct pressure and flow profiles in the major arteries of the cardiovascular system; the profiles of which differ at various arterial locations at the same instant throughout the cardiovascular system as thought, for example, by Cooney (Biomedical Engineering Principles—An Introduction to Fluid, Heat, and Mass Transport Processes, by David Cooney, Marcel Dekker, Inc. 1976 pp. 76-80). To achieve correct physiological pressure and flow, the heart and the vasculature have to work in unison (Hemodynamics, William. R. Milnor, Williams & Wilkins 1989 pp. 290-293); geometrical landmarks, such as major bifurcations, have to be placed at appropriate distances from the pumping heart, and the elasticity of the arteries has to represent that of actual vessels (Hemodynamics, William R. Milnor, Williams & Wilkins 1989 pp. 225-259). Furthermore, the implemented control mechanism provides automatic adjustment of one or more functioning elements, i.e. resistance valves or compliance chambers, to provide more accurate and representative pressure and fluid flow profiles, thereby providing a mechanism reduce collateral damage associated with cardiovasculature procedures.